let us see what love can do

By Nathan Diebenow, Associate Editor Lonestar Iconoclast

Group Vows To Keep Peace Presence In Crawford

CRAWFORD, Texas — Christmas came early for the Crawford Texas Peace House this year. Its core supporters on Thanksgiving agreed to pay the House’s bills through the end of December.

The decision thereby marked an end of an era for the peace movement nestled in the backyard of the vastly unpopular President George W. Bush. The Peace House in its current organizational structure will soon cease to exist. House owner Johnny Wolf told supporters there that starting in early January 2009 he hoped to hold a less prominent role in the grassroots group he helped organize as a new organization takes over his property.

"Ideally, the Peace House checkbook doesn’t continue after the first of the year. I’d like to put that entity to rest. It doesn’t have to," Wolf said during the recent Thanksgiving meal at the House.

Replied co-founder Hadi Jawad, "It can go away. December can be the last time."

The close of this chapter of the Crawford Texas Peace House’s history also drew the blessing of its long-time jill-of-all-trades Kay Lucas. "I would love that," the Central Texas resident said.

Since Wolf purchased the House in March 2003, he has shouldered the legal responsibilities for maintaining it. Through its existence, the House has survived on financial gifts from supporters, patrons, and, at times, out of the Wolf’s pocket. Now that about eight supporters promised to temporarily bear its financial burden, Wolf is looking to sell the House to a reputable (perhaps non-profit) organization.

"That works for me," Wolf said.

Jawad said that the organization could come from some of the same financial supporters gathered there at the Thanksgiving table, maybe under the name "Crawford Friends of Peace."

"I’m in favor of keeping it simple at the moment," Jawad added, later telling The Lone Star Iconoclast, "What’s really beautiful about this is the people who were there are the same faces that have been there. This is... amazing. Absolutely amazing! That’s mission accomplished."

Supporters at the meeting unanimously agreed that the Peace House should remain in Crawford as a counterweight to the legacy of Bush’s presidency. Bush has said he wished to return to his vacation ranchette in nearby Prairie Chapel when his term expires in January. His wife, Laura, is also said to have found a house in North Dallas.

But after January, it’s anyone’s guess as to the Peace House’s specific function. A number of possibilities were proposed on Thanksgiving. Some suggested creating a "peace museum" along with a push for a federal and/or state historical designation. Others suggested working with radio personality Bree Walker in her plan to institute a retreat for women veterans at Camp Casey, her property down the highway. Another person openly contemplated having the Dallas Peace Center purchase the property.

Wolf had considered moving the Peace House to Dallas to counter the Bush’s presidential library near the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU). However, that idea fizzled when Wolf noticed that local support for Bush’s library complex seemed to shrink.

"A year and a half ago when you looked at a map of where the Bush library was going to be, they had 40 acres. Now it’s just a spot on Yale Blvd. So I think the whole concept of what Bush is going to has scaled down. Whether or not he is even relevant there — they’re not releasing any statistics on its funding." Wolf said. "The city had passed an ordinance to sell him property in that little park beside La Madeline, but that’s not even in the footprint of where his library is going to be."

Until now, the Peace House has served activists seeking to gain the attention of the mainstream media when Bush was in the area. Filmmaker Michael Moore used the grassroots organization to show his movie Fahrenheit 9/11 in Tonkawa Falls Park in Crawford when theaters refused to show it in nearby Waco. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and her supporters also utilized the property during her August 2005 attempt to talk to Bush about her late son’s military service in Iraq. Other groups have included Lebanese, Iranians, Pakistanis, Ukrainians, Japanese, and other various issues from anti-Iraq war to anti-death penalty.

The House itself arose from Wolf’s own activism. In 2002, Wolf, Jawad, and others traveled to Crawford to protest during a visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Wolf retold part of the story of the event on Thanksgiving:

"When we came down here we were scared shitless. When we organized our first rally, we were coming in to hostile territory. It was scary. They didn’t even know how to let us drive into town. They had road blocks in town. We had to have a permit to go around the road blocks in Crawford. We had a copy of the Constitution to give everybody at the road block and told them that they could drive on through."

Seeing the need for a liaison between the Crawford Police Department and the rest of the activist world, Wolf jumped at the chance to purchase the House.

"I remember calling him after I spoke with Skip Landos (a peace activist from Waco) saying, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity. We have some friends down there who are saying that there might be a house available to buy in Crawford.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re going to do that.’ Like there wasn’t even a one second pause," said Jawad.

Wolf originally told The Iconoclast that he had envisioned a Maryknoll Catholic nun living and working out of the House. When that didn’t happen, Lucas of Waco Friends of Peace volunteered to take care of the property from time to time. Now these responsibilities are too great for Wolf and Lucas to handle alone, they said.

"For the last six years, a lot of times our community committment was that we lived on faith. And it has worked," said Lucas. "If everybody has this vision and if everybody wants it, then the way will be provided. That’s the way it works. It has happened here so much."

Wolf admitted that he thought about selling the House and use the money for other social justice causes but he put the decision into the hands of the House’s supporters.

"My other idea was to sell my business and house in Forney and move down here — to have a beer with [Bush] every now and then," said Wolf, jokingly.

But in all seriousness, he said, "I love what’s here. I love the community. I love what we’ve done, and I’d like to see that maintained."

Inauguration Ball

Plans are under way for "virtual alternative inauguration ball celebration" at the Peace House. A large event will be held Sunday, Jan. 18, followed by smaller activities Saturday, Jan. 17, and Tuesday, Jan. 20, President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration day. The Peace House planners are currently soliciting underwriters for its events.

"All donors will stand in testament and solidarity, as the Western White House outside of Crawford, Texas, takes its place alongside that famous horse in the movie Cat Ballou, as a drunken stagger in the historical chronicle of our country," said Lucas.

GOPS: Pardon Me?

Bush Bobble Head at the Bush Ranch Checkpoint. ... Prarie ...
3 min -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf30U4RVJVU

Stay tuned for more information about events in Crawford
Saturday January 17th -Tuesday January 20th 2009

Giving Thanks for Change!
Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 1 PM
Crawford Texas Peace House
9142 E. Fifth Street (Highway 185)
Crawford, Texas 76638

As we look forward to a long awaited change in US administration, we hope you will join us in giving thanks for the many blessings we've experienced.

The most important blessings of all are the wonderful people we've come to know and love and the experiences we've shared along the way.

So, come early and stay late. Bring a dish to share or just bring yourself and share a story.

At 12:00 noon on Inauguration Day 2009 (January 20, 2009, according to the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution), Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States.

Hey Everyone,

Below is an updated description of Rebecca MacNeice's documentary. She is in the final stages of filming and has some critical things she'd like to tape on election night.

Currently Rebecca is raising funds to complete filming. She needs yoursupport to be able to follow the main character, Colonel Ann Wright,
through this election. She will also need to be able to hire other videographers across the country to capture some of the peripheral characters.

Let's all help support this ongoing work

http://www.macneicefilms.com/crawfordtexas.html

Her work has been featured on Democracy NOW!, Truthout.org, The Nation's website and PBS' Now with David Brancaccio.

I hope you will contribute to her film. I know the kind of effort independent filmmakers have to put in to get their stories out to the public. Let's help out one of our own.

Please click on the pay pal link below and give what you can.

Contributions add up-even $5.00 at a time-so please give what you can and know that this helps bring the film closer to the final stages.

Thanks for your time!

Johnny Wolf

to contribute click on link bellow:

http://www.macneicefilms.com/crawfordtexas.html

The Documentary:

The Good Colonel is a feature-length documentary film focusing on retired Col. Ann Wright and her crusade to bring public attention to the horrors of the Iraq war. Through significant events, sometimes intense, funny and surreal, the film captures her in action-beginning
with her quiet leadership role in Crawford, Texas during the anti-war protests of 2005. I came to realize she was the man behind the curtain during that time. She kept the logistics of potential chaos in order and used her 13 years experience as a diplomat for the State Department to run interference between local law enforcement, pro-war zealots, anti-war protestors, bereaved family members of soldiers
killed in action and some nutty people with no where else to go. All just outside the doorsteps of the President.

You may have already heard and contributed to this film-formerly called Crawford, Texas. I've narrowed the scope to focus on Ann Wright's story. Her willingness to go against the grain politically
and her military code of silence exemplifies the spirit of the film.The Good Colonel is a complex journey through the experiences of a high ranking retired colonel navigating through her unexpected new role as a leader in a protest movement. The Good Colonel follows one women's journey between polar opposites of power through relinquishing her political power and clout to standing outside the gates of the White House-sometimes leaving in handcuffs. The story follows her, and a few others, through the urban and rural landscapes of an America at war in Iraq and with its own concience.

In this political season I know we have all grown weary of capital campaigns. But this film is an example of all that you have supported in the past and look forward to in the future. It is a celebration of
people who went against the tide and stood up for their values during a very uncomfortable time in our history. Ann Wright, and the others featured in this film, deserved the moniker of "changemakers" long
before that became politically acceptable again.

Thank you so much,

Rebecca MacNeice

Here's some background about Ann Wright:

On March 21, 2003, Colonel Ann Wright resigned from the Foreign Service in opposition to the Administration's plans to preemptively
attack Iraq without the support of the UN. On that day she became an anti-war activist with 29 years of military experience and 13 years as a diplomat in the State Department. In the State Department she demonstrated leadership and logistical organizing power in some of the most tumultuous and fragile military situations in recent years. Five years later she is on an FBI watch list for publicly speaking out against the Iraq war and for minor/non violent arrests during protests. Wright has been the target of political intimidation. She was denied access to Canada twice. (yes, Canada.) She has repeatedly found herself on the other side of the barricades-standing alongside the same kind of people who used to protest her presence in places like Managua.

Rebecca MacNeice

MacNeice Films, Inc
13 1/2 Eagle St. Suite P
Asheville, NC 28801
828-281-1341
www.macneicefilms.com
rebecca@macneicefilms.com

From Bailout to Brilliance: The Opportunity in Crisis
Replacing The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
A Measure to Restore the Credit of the Nation to the Service of the People
by Leland Lehrman
leland@mothermedia.org
Reading the newspaper recently, one would never have guessed there was any chance the nation's lawmakers would vote against the banker bailout. But, with so many calls coming in against it, sometimes at 300 to 1, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including New Mexico's Tom Udall and Steve Pearce voted against the blank check for the bankers.

All Muslims are terrorists—that’s what prosecutors and a witness insinuated Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008 during the third day of the Holy Land Foundation retrial after the jury left for the day. It quickly became more apparent than ever before that the five defendants are being targeted for the religion they follow.

Individuals who often use statements such as these—By God. Thank God. In the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. Peace be Upon You. God Willing. May God Bless You. And Praise be to God—are Islamists, which makes them Muslim Brotherhood members, which makes them anti-Israeli, which in turn makes them terrorists, argued government witness Atef Shafik, a senior language analyst for the FBI.

“Persons who speak that way are persons who are Islamists,” prosecutor Jim Jacks told U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis as he pushed to include Shafik’s obviously bias perspective to the jury. “The way we speak gives away who we are.”

When asked to define Islamists, Shafik said, They are devout Muslims who follow the Sharia Law. They refer extensively to religious texts, such as Quran and Hadith. And they call for the destruction of Israel.

His sources for his conclusion, he explained, are the media and the fact that he lived in Egypt the first 27 years of his life.

Defense attorneys made it clear that Shafik, who is Christian, was no expert on Islam. Defense attorney Theresa Duncan said Shafik’s words expressed pure bigotry and were clearly “an attack on Islam.”

Judge Solis said he would make a ruling Thursday morning on whether Shafik’s perspective could be presented to the jury.

http://www.freedomtogive.com/?q=node/140

Veterans Climb Government Building, Call for Arrest of Bush and Cheney
Impeachment movement challenges Bush at every turn

VFP Arrest Bush
The enormous banner hanging from the National Archive building... right now!

Dear Brothers & Sisters,Best Greetings / Assalmo Alykom
/From Waseem Nasrallah

Today Monday September 15, 2008 the Re-Trial of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) begins. Please keep yourself informed about this important legal case. Also please pray for these brothers during this blessed month of Ramadan.

What is this Case About?

This case is about criminalizing feeding the children, orphans, and widows.

The government is accusing 5 brothers of supporting a terrorist organization “Hamas”. They claim that through feeding the children of Palestine HLF also indirectly supported Hamas.

Why is this case important?

Not only did the government shut down the Holy land Foundation in 2001, they also indicted 5 brothers in 2004 as part of a conspiracy to provide material support to organizations linked to Hamas (not direct support). These organizations are called Zakat Committees in Palestine. The Zakat committees operated legally under Israeli law. Also, the committees were supported by USAID (A US government agency) and the United Nations. So I ask, ‘why was the HLF singled out’?

A lawyer for Holy Land, John Boyd, said, ”The local Palestinian charities that the foundation supported were also getting funds from the American Government, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and others. I won't even speculate now as to why under these circumstances Holy Land Foundation should have to struggle with this idea that somehow by engaging in charitable efforts in Palestine … that the Holy Land Foundation is now having to fend off a theory that somehow charity equals terrorism,".

In addition the US Government filed a brief to the court listing 306 Muslim individuals and Muslim organizations as Un-indicted Co-Conspirators (UCC) as part of the HLF Case. They made the list public.